Unfortunately I've had my differences with the little brown 12v pumps, impressive as they are for the size and price. They didn't deal well with grain particles getting around the shaft and aren't designed to be easily disassembled (to that level) for cleaning. The higher powered ones also overheated when pumping boiling wort on hot days, though mash temperatures weren't a problem. I still think they're excellent for HLT duties.

So for me, one who's wet parts can be properly disassembled and cleaned out would be preferable. Unfortunately I can't recommend a cheap model from personal experience (I got an over-priced one instead).

The solar pump I use has so far been bulletproof - its waterproof, so you can fully submerge it for easy cleaning. I've taken it apart too, but it's mostly a sealed unit. I run it through some oxyclean then rinse with hot water then starsan and leave. Same again when I use it next. Been solid for 12 months now.

HTH1975 wrote:The solar pump I use has so far been bulletproof - its waterproof, so you can fully submerge it for easy cleaning. I've taken it apart too, but it's mostly a sealed unit. I run it through some oxyclean then rinse with hot water then starsan and leave. Same again when I use it next. Been solid for 12 months now.

Good to hear. I've three such pumps. That used only with water from the HLT for mash and sparge has worked perfectly for well over a year. However the other two have suffered problems.

Both were used recycling wort to occasionally stop and require strip down and clean in addition to those between brews. Eventually one refused to restart and while it could just be due to imperfect reassembly, it's now out of service. The other has been kept servicable after repiping my system so that water from the HLT can occasionally be pumped through the wort pump while brewing to clean and flush it without need to disconnect it. However, brewing was felt as being done on a bit of a wing and a prayer.

More recently I got one of these which would seem to have totally eliminated such problems.

HTH1975 wrote:The solar pump I use has so far been bulletproof - its waterproof, so you can fully submerge it for easy cleaning. I've taken it apart too, but it's mostly a sealed unit. I run it through some oxyclean then rinse with hot water then starsan and leave. Same again when I use it next. Been solid for 12 months now.

Mine worked very well initially too, I hope yours continue - they are great little things when all is well. The one I used for clean HLT water was a very good pairing.

Unfortunately I have to disagree about the easy cleaning though. After one of mine started to struggle, I recirculated hot PBW for 'many' hours with no improvement; upon disassembling there were grain particles found still around the magnet. Inspection of another showed the same. The bearing behind the impeller isn't sealed, yet it creates a back-water that is hard to flush out, and whilst the bearing can be dug out with care it isn't designed to be easily/regularly removed for manual cleaning.

That is just a reliability issue for pre-boil use, but has infection-related concerns for post boil use. So I extended the time that boiling wort was recirculated in the hope this would help, but I believe this contributed to the electronics failing later that summer. Mine were the higher power versions, so probably more prone to over-heating.

Perhaps if the pumps weren't used post-boil, as the OP intends, I would have been happier with them and certainly for the price they do well. Its just hard not to see the design as a compromise for where particles or thorough disinfecting are involved - when compared to the magnetically coupled impeller type (or those with sealed bearings) that have no such a back-water and are designed for regular and full disassembly of all the wet parts.